William Proxmire Quotes

I've never particularly liked bankers.

The pushback I get is, 'He's a hedge fund guy.' Full stop. Some places, that can be a badge of honor. In others, it's almost a term of derision.

I left Goldman Sachs. I was thinking about going to another Wall Street place. I didn't want to do that. That was crazy. After you work on Wall Street, it's a choice: would you rather work at McDonald's or on the sell side? I would choose McDonald's over the sell side.

I wouldn't in any way say I distanced myself from Wall Street.

My father was an investment banker, a stock broker.

My older son works in finance and private equity, which he loves, and Lucas works in film and theater.

Banking and after-dinner speaking are two of the most nonessential industries we have in this country. I am ready to reform, if they are.

It has been the bankers' destiny ... to find themselves on the dangerous edge of the world, pointing up the contradictions and cross-purposes. They are not often loved for it.

I'm referred to, I see, as 'the biggest banker in modern publishing'. Now there's a line that needed the celebrated Guardian proof-reading.

I've noticed that a lot of people who criticize me are from the U.K. - both in the press and on social media. Since I've been here, I've gotten a lot of stares on the street, but in the States, people always come up to me and say, 'I love your hair' or 'I love your dress, you're so cute.' Here, people just look at me like I'm a crazy person.

As I was coming up, there was so much naysaying, there was so much doubt, whether it was from my peers or people in the industry.

Flattery and criticism are always in our profession.

You know that once you're successful, there's going to be good things and bad things that people say and, honestly, to me it doesn't really matter.

People make up their mind on whether you're a good player over seven games at a World Cup. You're great if you score goals and bad if you don't. I will always believe in myself, and those who doubt me will always continue to do so.

Honestly, I don't really care what people say on Twitter or what they say if they are cheering for me or not cheering for me.

We're a boring retail and commercial bank.

You know, I'm a broadcaster, folks. Broadcaster first, second, third, fourth, fifth, first and last I'm a broadcaster. Whatever else I am comes the in the middle. So I watch broadcasting as a business enterprise inasmuch as I watch it for content and so forth.

Banking may well be a career from which no man really recovers.

A banker is somebody who lends you an umbrella & takes it away as soon as it starts raining.

[People] felt good even though they didn't really know much about [Barack Obama] and may have had some doubts.

I'm not against banking. Banking allowed our modern society to happen, it is essential. It connects the work through finance, so banking is good.

The only thing wrong with architecture is architects.

Have you ever heard the phrase, it is better to keep your mouth closed and have people wonder if you are stupid than open it and remove all doubt? (Hakim al Harbi)

It's a point of pride that no one would treat me any differently because I'm an actor than if I was a gardener.

The Public ... demands certainties ... But there are not certainties